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IVNS Univ. Kansas Connection and VN's Science (fwd)
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From: Kurt Johnson <belina@dellnet.com>
Put me down for a discount copy of Nabokov's Butterflies and I
will also be joining the IVNS (long overdue on that one!)...
Of course I've read Nabokov's Butterflies already, at several
stages of its germination, but can always use a spare copy and already know
it's a wonderful book. An interesting take on the Univ. of Kansas
connection of the IVNS-- the recent article of mine "Nabokov's Tropical
Lepidoptery...." published in the winter Lepidoptera News used a spinoff
from an article by Dr. A. Townsend Peterson of the University of Kansas
Museum of Natural History. My article keyed Nabokov's entomological career
into a model/proposal of Dr. Peterson's concerning how taxonomy should
confront the biodiversity crisis and I fit Nabokov's scientific career into
a 3-point model (of 4-points) Townsend had suggested. Townsend's article
also gave me the springboard for citing Nabokov's many quibbles with the
famed biologist Ernst Mayr (of Harvard and the American Museum), most of
which are published in Nabokov's Butterflies for the first time. Since
Townsend's article appeared in the bird journal The Auk, he was citing Mayr
as having errored in his estimation of bird diversity, a point that Nabokov
had predicted re Mayr's views in one of his [Nabokov's] talks to the
Cambridge Entomological Club, also published in Nabokov's Butterflies. So,
ironic to see your notice today because I has just prepared a letter to Dr.
Townsend informing him of what the germ of his Auk article had led to re
Nabokoviana.
I should also say here that having read, and aided with the
translation, of "Father's Butterflies", also known as "DAR
II" this is an exciting piece with major scientific implications for
Nabokov. I think there will be controversy and talk about this chapter of
The Gift for years to come. I am not entirely satisfied that every possible
nuance or problem has been worked out of the sometimes different
interpretations the original Russian could have had re the science, but that
will be part of the spice.
Kurt Johnson
Put me down for a discount copy of Nabokov's Butterflies and I
will also be joining the IVNS (long overdue on that one!)...
Of course I've read Nabokov's Butterflies already, at several
stages of its germination, but can always use a spare copy and already know
it's a wonderful book. An interesting take on the Univ. of Kansas
connection of the IVNS-- the recent article of mine "Nabokov's Tropical
Lepidoptery...." published in the winter Lepidoptera News used a spinoff
from an article by Dr. A. Townsend Peterson of the University of Kansas
Museum of Natural History. My article keyed Nabokov's entomological career
into a model/proposal of Dr. Peterson's concerning how taxonomy should
confront the biodiversity crisis and I fit Nabokov's scientific career into
a 3-point model (of 4-points) Townsend had suggested. Townsend's article
also gave me the springboard for citing Nabokov's many quibbles with the
famed biologist Ernst Mayr (of Harvard and the American Museum), most of
which are published in Nabokov's Butterflies for the first time. Since
Townsend's article appeared in the bird journal The Auk, he was citing Mayr
as having errored in his estimation of bird diversity, a point that Nabokov
had predicted re Mayr's views in one of his [Nabokov's] talks to the
Cambridge Entomological Club, also published in Nabokov's Butterflies. So,
ironic to see your notice today because I has just prepared a letter to Dr.
Townsend informing him of what the germ of his Auk article had led to re
Nabokoviana.
I should also say here that having read, and aided with the
translation, of "Father's Butterflies", also known as "DAR
II" this is an exciting piece with major scientific implications for
Nabokov. I think there will be controversy and talk about this chapter of
The Gift for years to come. I am not entirely satisfied that every possible
nuance or problem has been worked out of the sometimes different
interpretations the original Russian could have had re the science, but that
will be part of the spice.
Kurt Johnson